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Teachers are tasked with ensuring that those under their care are safe and protected, yet the lack of evidence supporting the specific needs and experiences of teachers during active school shooter lockdown drills is alarming. The current study used live-action, virtual reality (VR) technology to simulate 36 active school shooter scenarios to explore teachers' experiences related to lockdown procedures and response protocols. Using thematic analysis and structured qualitative data, 355 descriptive responses from 11 teachers across 396 scenarios were coded and analyzed for explicit and implicit themes and subthemes. Three overarching themes-humanistic care, enacted care, and professional duty-describe how teachers negotiate demands placed upon them during an active shooter lockdown. The findings reflected internal and external responsibilities for teachers in protecting and caring for others. Implications for school safety policies, active shooter response protocols, and ways to support teacher resilience as part of emergency response procedures are discussed.

The current study investigates the effects of the school lockdowns during school years 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 on the achievement scores of primary school students during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed scores for spelling, reading fluency (i.e., decoding speed), reading comprehension, and mathematics from standardized student tracking systems for 5125 students from 26 primary schools in the urban region of The Hague, the Netherlands. Results showed that students in grades 1 through 3 had significant learning delays after the first lockdown. However, results after the second lockdown showed that most students were able to catch up, compared to students from corresponding grades of cohorts before COVID-19. The magnitude of these positive effects was mostly close to the negative effect of the first lockdown. Apparently, during the second lockdown, schools seemed better prepared and able to deliver more effective home schooling and online instruction. The hypothesis that students’ learning from a low SES home environment will suffer most from the school lockdowns could only partly be confirmed. SES effects at the individual level tended to be mitigated by negative effects of SES at the school level, making SES-related differences between schools less profound. The findings of this study offer a broader perspective to evaluate the effects of long-term school closures. Implications for educational practice and issues of inequality between students are discussed.

Purpose Reducing fatalities and increasing the number of students able to remain safe during an active shooter event is paramount to the health and well-being of schools and communities. Yet, methodological limitations and ethical concerns have restricted prior research on security measures during school shooter lockdown drills. This study aims to fill that gap by using virtual reality (VR) to statistically examine the effectiveness of active shooter response protocols in a simulated high school. Design/methodology/approach Using a full factorial, within-subjects experimental design, this exploratory investigation used VR technology to investigate whether automatic classroom door locks, centralized lockdown notifications and the presence of a school resource officer (SRO) significantly impacted student safety and casualty mitigation. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 37 individuals who volunteered to participate in 24 school shooter scenarios within a simulated virtual environment. Findings Multiple one-way analysis of variances indicated significant main effects for automatic classroom door locks and SRO presence. Automatic locks yielded faster lockdown response times, and both factors were significantly associated with higher numbers of secured classrooms. Originality/value Findings from the current study address the gap in existing literature regarding evidence-based school safety protocols and provide recommendations for using VR simulations to increase preparedness and reduce fatalities during an active school shooter event.

School lockdowns have been widely used to control the COVID-19 pandemic. However, these lockdowns may have a significant negative impact on the lives of young people. In this study, we have evaluated the impact of closing lower secondary schools for COVID-19 incidence in 13–15-year-olds in Finland, in a situation where restrictions and recommendation of social distancing were implemented uniformly in the entire country. COVID-19 case numbers were obtained from the National Infectious Disease Registry (NIDR) of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, in which clinical microbiology laboratories report all positive SARS-CoV-2 tests with unique identifiers in a timely manner. The NIDR is linked to population data registry, enabling calculation of incidences. We estimated the differences in trends between areas with both restaurant and lower secondary school closures and areas with only restaurant closures in different age groups by using joinpoint regression. We also estimated the differences in trends between age groups. Based on our analysis, closing lower secondary schools had no impact on COVID-19 incidence among 13–15-year-olds. No significant changes on COVID-19 incidence were observed in other age groups either.

In March 2020 all schools in Italy were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the novelty of distance learning was introduced. During the 2020-2021 school year, pre-primary and primary schooling was carried out in situ, while secondary education was re-organized into a mixed system, with students spending 50% of their time attending classes from home, in distance learning. This reconfiguration was a challenge to students, teachers, and parents, affecting the learning experience of the most vulnerable students and students with disabilities, particularly. It necessarily brought into question Italy's \"progressive\" legal framework for \"school inclusion\". The scope of the present article is to analyze the teaching activities carried out with students with disabilities in Italy during the first wave of the emergency lockdown and their consequent challenges for school inclusiveness. An overview of the Italian inclusive model in education and the national measures adopted to guarantee the right to education during times of school closure/restriction is outlined. We have sought to test the hypothesis that distance learning may introduce many risks for inclusion (resulting in a \"downgrading inclusion\", that is, a decline of the level of inclusion already reached for students with disabilities), but it may also present an improvement in how teachers address these students and their needs. To this end, after reporting data from the available studies on this target, we provide insights from a web questionnaire submitted to a non-probabilistic sample of nearly 150 primary and (lower and upper) secondary school teachers. Results showcase that, though with a general worsening of school inclusion, in some cases, teachers were actually able to support students with disabilities and their families in a new, customized, empathetic, and more attentive manner.

COVID-19 led governments worldwide to enact a variety of containment and closure policies. Substantial attention has been directed toward the idea that these public health measures may have unanticipated negative side effects. One proposed effect relates to video games. There is a nascent evidence base suggesting that individuals played video games for longer and in a more disordered manner during lockdowns and school closures specifically. These increases are commonly framed as a potential health concern in relation to disordered gaming. However, the evidence base regarding changes in gaming during the COVID-19 pandemic is based on self-report and, thus, is susceptible to bias. Therefore, it is unclear what the true consequences of lockdowns were for gaming behavior worldwide. The primary objective of this study was to estimate whether any specific lockdown policy led to meaningful increases in the amount of time individuals spent playing video games. Rather than relying on self-report, we used >251 billion hours of raw gameplay telemetry data from 184 separate countries to assess the behavioral correlates of COVID-19–related policy decisions. A multilevel model estimated the impact of varying enforcement levels of 8 containment and closure policies on the amount of time that individual users spent in-game. Similar models estimated the impact of policy on overall playtime and the number of users within a country. No lockdown policy can explain substantial variance in playtime per gamer. School closures were uniquely associated with meaningful increases in total playtime within a country (r [sup.2]=0.048). However, this was associated with increases in the number of unique individuals playing games (r [sup.2]=0.057) rather than increases in playtime per gamer (r [sup.2]<0.001). Previous work using self-report data has suggested that important increases in heavy gaming may occur during pandemics because of containment and closure (“lockdown”) procedures. This study contrasts with the previous evidence base and finds no evidence of such a relationship. It suggests that significant further work is needed before increases in disordered or heavy gaming are considered when planning public health policies for pandemic preparedness.

Relatively little research has focused on children and young people (CYP) whose mental health and wellbeing improved during Covid-19 lockdown measures. We aimed to (1) determine the proportion of CYP who self-reported improvement in their mental wellbeing during the first Covid-19 lockdown and (2) describe the characteristics of this group in relation to their peers. We conducted a descriptive analysis of data from the 2020 OxWell Student Survey, a self-report, cross-sectional survey of English CYP. A total of 16,940 CYP primarily aged 8–18 years reported on change in mental wellbeing during lockdown. We characterised these CYP in terms of school, home, relational, and lifestyle factors as well as feelings about returning to school. One-third (33%) of CYP reported improved mental wellbeing during the first UK national lockdown. Compared with peers who reported no change or deterioration, a higher proportion of CYP with improved mental wellbeing reported improved relationships with friends and family, less loneliness and exclusion, reduced bullying, better management of school tasks, and more sleep and exercise during lockdown. In conclusion, a sizeable minority of CYP reported improved mental wellbeing during lockdown. Determining the reasons why these CYP felt they fared better during lockdown and considering how these beneficial experiences can be maintained beyond the pandemic might provide insights into how to promote the future mental health and wellbeing of school-aged CYP. All those working with CYP now have an opportunity to consider whether a systemic shift is needed in order to understand and realise any learnings from experiences during the pandemic.

Online teaching has globally become a part of the learning process and has been more well-established in developed countries. In developing countries, online teaching or e-Learning is not practiced or recognized officially by educational organizations and policymakers. On the other hand, it is well-known that computers and technology are the future; in such a case, the advancement of distance-learning or online learning is immensely remarkable. It has reduced teachers’ and students’ introversion concerning e-learning and technology and has provided a platform for learning new technologies and developing new skills. The recent COVID-19 lockdown impelled governments to start implementing E-learning in schools, which resulted in several challenges. This study attempts to analyze and interpret the challenges and potentials of implementing online learning by surveying through an online questionnaire using ‘Google Forms’ (N = 968) with responses from high school and primary school English teachers during the first week of March through the last week of April. The findings revealed that most teachers had negative perceptions of implementing e-learning for several reasons, including lack of essential facilities such as electricity, electronic devices, and the absence of required skills. The actual contributions of students and educators are also among the major obstacles. This research suggests introducing Information Communication Technology modules across media platforms and applications in the education departments, opening intensive courses for teachers, and developing educational facilities in the education departments and schools to overcome these limitations and challenges.

COVID-19-pandemic-related home confinement aids in limiting the spread of the virus but restricts exposure to sunlight, thereby possibly affecting 25(OH)D concentrations. This study aimed to investigate the effect of lockdown measures on 25(OH)D levels in outpatients visiting the healthcare centre over a period of two years. In this retrospective chart review, outpatients who visited a university healthcare centre for a health check-up over a period of two years were included. The patients’ 25(OH)D serum levels and status were compared before, during, and after the lockdown periods. A total of 7234 patients were included in this study, with a mean age of 34.66 ± 16.78. The overall prevalence of 25(OH)D insufficiency, deficiency and sufficiency was 33.8%, 30.7% and 35.4%, respectively. The proportion of individuals with 25-(OH) D deficiency prior to lockdown was 29% and this proportion increased in the lockdown and post-lockdown periods to 31.1% and 32%, respectively. Although gender was less likely to have an impact on the 25 (OH) D level during the lockdown period (p = 0.630), we found an association between gender and 25 (OH) D status in the pre-lockdown and post-lockdown periods (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). Another association between nationality and 25 (OH)D levels was found before, during and after the lockdown periods (p < 0.001). In addition, the youngest population, aged between 1 and 14, was strongly affected by the home confinement. Age had a positive and significant (p < 0.05) effect on 25 (OH) D status regardless of the different periods. Moreover, in the pre-lockdown period, male outpatients had 1.56 chance of having a sufficient level of 25 (OH)D. However, during the lockdown period, this chance decreased to 0.85 and then increased to 0.99 after the lockdown period. We found no statistically significant difference in the mean serum concentrations or in the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency when we compared values from before, during and immediately after the COVID-19 lockdown period. However, there was a generally increased prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in our study population. Another association between gender, nationality and age groups with 25(OH) D was found. Regular exposure to UVR is recommended for maintaining adequate vitamin D levels and to prevent vitamin D deficiency. Further research is needed to determine the best indications for vitamin D supplementation if confinement periods are extended and to consider the potential health consequences of prolonged confinement periods not only on vitamin D status but also on overall public health. The findings of this study may be considered by stakeholders for a targeted supplementation approach for risk groups.

What is the social, emotional, and academic impact of attending school remotely rather than in person? We address this issue using survey data collected from N = 6,576 high school students in a large, diverse school district that allowed families to choose either format in fall 2020. Controlling for baseline measures of well-being collected 1 month before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as demographics, high school students who attended school remotely reported lower levels of social, emotional, and academic well-being (effect size [ES] = 0.10, 0.08, and 0.07 standard deviations, respectively) than classmates who attended school in person—differences that were consistent across gender, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status subgroups but significantly wider among 10th-12th graders than ninth graders.